Whiskey flowed like water.  Barrels were knocked open and canteens filled.  Kegs, jugs, and bottles seemed to be everywhere.  One stalwart man of my company shouldered a ten gallon keg and proposed to hold on to it as long as possible, and it is a fact that a few men carried this keg by reliefs all night and next day.  This was the case in other companies.  When, we got out of the town and on the railroad, the men were completely overloaded.  All night we marched along the railroad at a slow, steady gait, but all order and discipline were abandoned.  About midnight we saw in our rear great sheets of flame shooting up from the burning buildings, that illuminated the country for miles around.  Manassas was on fire!  Some of the buildings had caught fire by accident or carelessness of the soldiers, for the firing was not to begin until next day, after the withdrawal of the cavalry.  The people in the surrounding country had been invited to come in and get whatever they wished, but I doubt if any came in time to save much from the burning mass.  A great meat curing establishment at Thoroughfare Gap, that contained millions of pounds of beef and pork, was also destroyed.  We could hear the bursting of bombs as the flames reached the magazines, as well as the explosion of thousands of small arm cartridges.  The whole sounded like the raging of a great battle.  Manassas had become endeared to the soldiers by its many memories, and when the word went along the line, “Manassas is burning,” it put a melancholy feeling upon all.  Some of the happiest recollections of the soldiers that composed Kershaw’s Brigade as well as all of Johnston’s Army, were centred around Manassas.  It was here they had experienced their first sensations of the soldier, Manassas was the field of their first victory, and there they had spent their first winter.  It seemed to connect the soldiers of the Confederacy with those of Washington at Valley Forge and Trenton, the winter quarters of the army of the patriots.  It gave the recollection of rest, a contrast with the many marches, the hard fought battles, trials, and hardships.

The next day it began to rain, and a continual down-pour continued for days and nights.  Blankets were taken from knapsacks to cover over the men as they marched, but they soon filled with water, and had to be thrown aside.  Both sides of the railroad were strewn with blankets, shawls, overcoats, and clothing of every description, the men finding it impossible to bear up under such loads.  The slippery ground and the unevenness of the railroad track made marching very disagreeable to soldiers unaccustomed to it.  Some took the dirt road, while others kept the railroad track, and in this way all organizations were lost sight of, but at night they collected together in regiments, joined the wagon trains, and bivouaced for the night.  Sometimes it would be midnight before the last of the stragglers came up.  We crossed the Rappahannock on the railroad bridge, which had been laid with plank